Fantasy of the Universe
by Lord Maximus
Summary: "You live because we allow it and you will end if we demand it. Show us you are useful and perhaps you will be allowed to journey into the universe outside of this shell that is now your home. None shall find you because to the universe you do not exist." They were all trapped in a world that was a fantasy that was a play to them and for their amusement.


**Chronicles of the Demons**

 _History tells us that Earth-That-Was become uninhabitable because its resources were all used up and humanity build ships to leave the planet. We found new worlds that took centuries to colonize and the central planets came together to form the Alliance. The outer worlds however were colonized by barbarians that resisted unification leading to war but the Alliance was victorious and unified all worlds into a beacon of civilization._

Serenity Valley was hell on Earth…or so the expression went. Alliance fighters provided air support for their more numerous army that was pushing through the area easily. Most of the 'brown coats' acting as the infantry for the Independents had held out for over a month, some measured it at over seven weeks precisely. Most of the fighting was left between units crawling through crevices and trenches avoiding fire from above or snipers posted miles away by either side.

In one area, along a slope, a squadron of brown coats had set up their position in a small construct of sand bags and wreckage used to provide them cover. They were regrouping from their previous engagement, their Lieutenant cowering in the corner while an older man with short brown hair was rallying them.

"Command refuses to dedicate air support without authorization from a Lieutenant or up, sir!" A radio operator called.

The man he addressed, Sergeant Malcolm Reynolds, promptly tore the rank patch from the arm of the platoon's Lieutenant, who was left to simply rocking back and forth in his corner silently.

He slapped the patch into the hands of the radio operator. "Congratulations, your name is Lieutenant Baker, now get us some gorram air support!"

He turned towards the other exhausted and demoralized soldiers occupying the outpost, less than a dozen left of nearly eighty men that they had started out with when deployed from the base camp earlier that day.

"Just a little longer boys and girls, and our angels will rain down some fire on those fascist alliance thugs." He encouraged them, urging them to rise one by one. "There's an AA turret at the base of this slope, I'll go for it with Zoe while you draw their fire." He looked to another soldier sitting further from the rest while the squad began to move out. "Walker, give us some cover fire on the way down." When he received no response Mal barked. "Walker!"

The young soldier, little more than a boy, looked at him blankly. Mal sympathized, knowing that somebody Walker's age belonged back home with his family rather than surrounded by dirt and death in all directions. However Mal didn't have time to try and snap the boy out of it, and rushed out after a dark skinned woman, Corporal Zoe Alleyne, and began to make his way down the slope.

He could hear gunfire coming from the position taken up by the rest of the squadron, but knew that he would have to trust them to hold out until he could get to the turret. He heard Zoe fire off several bursts from her rifle, and saw several purple clad Alliance troops stumble and fall as they tried to rush the slope. Mal fired off several rounds of his own, clearing the way down to where a single Alliance soldier was occupied with firing the turret into the air at targets that only the advanced targeting systems on the emplacement could pick up.

Mal fired a single round into the man from behind and tugged the slumped corpse out of the firing seat before taking over, trusting Zoe to watch his back. He grasped the controls and peered through the optical screen, watching it light up with golden symbols and lock onto passing fighters and ships. He focused on a single Alliance fighter that had been carpet bombing the area for several hours and making it a pain for his unit to get around, and on top of that had been picking off or chasing away any friendly craft.

Mal smirked and fired off several bursts, getting the pilot's attention when several high powered shots clipped the fighter, which turned towards Mal's position.

"Come and get it!" Mal said, now firing a full spray of high explosive rounds at the fighter, managing to tear away one of its wings before the pilot could get more than a single shot off. He watched as fire blossomed from the ship, which began to spiral through the air.

"Yeah!" Mal laughed as he pulled back, his smile fading quickly as he realized that the fighter would be coming down right on his position. "Oh crap, uh-" He rushed away from the turret and grabbed Zoe around the waist. "Zoe!" He shouted, leaping down into a ditch for cover with her just in time as fire and shrapnel flew where they had been moments ago.

As it faded they both stood up and stared at the smoldering pile of fire and death.

"Well now that is a job well done if ever I've seen one." Mal chuckled. "Right Zoe?"

The woman brushed some hair back and sighed. "Pretty sure we should have died four or five times just getting down the hill, Sergeant."

"Hey now, stow that pessimism and let's get back up there so we can watch us some fireworks." He urged her with a pat on the back.

Mal sighed as he looked over the battlefield and could see nothing but trouble. The Alliance was pushing the Independents back on all fronts and they even bombed the Planet Shadow to extinction just to scare the Independents into surrendering but it only made them more determined to fight. The Alliance was more advanced with better equipment and weapons but the Independents fought with unconventional thinking and old fashioned determination.

At least that's what Mal tried to believe.

The fact was that the Independents needed a miracle and they needed something fast to boost morale as he had already heard talks of surrender. The Independents didn't have an advanced fleet or even a large one. The ships they had was mostly commercial or cargo ships that had been modified and that was barely enough to keep with advanced Alliance Attack Ships nicknamed 'Shinigami' because of how fast and deadly they were. Despite the fact that Alliance had them outgunned Mal believed the Independents would win because they were fighting for a just cause.

However when he heard the sound of the Independent Command surrendering and the Alliance ships settling over Serenity Valley all Mal could do was stand and watch as his whole world crumbled.

* * *

When people remembered Serenity Valley they remembered it for different reasons.

To the Alliance it was the day the Independents had been dealt a harsh blow and surrendered, bring all worlds under unification and order.

To the Independents it was the day the day their cause to fight died with so many of them.

Mostly though the Alliance left the outer worlds alone, only demanding they pay a fee which was endorsed by Alliance agents stationed on the planet. The Alliance spun a story that the outer worlds had been littered with barbarians that needed to be brought under its banner for all of civilization to become whole and better itself. The Independents knew better though; the Alliance had massacred their worlds just because they were incapable of tolerating people who wanted to live on their own. The ideas of freedom, the ability to question and resist any form of oppression was a form of thinking the Alliance found intolerable and they sought to kill it.

For all its talk of bring order to chaos in the universe the Alliance fell short on that promise because of the war and their refusal to do anything about the Reavers.

Reavers, mostly believed to be campfire stories in the Core Worlds but the Boarder and Rim worlds knew better than anyone that they were _real_. Men that had gone savage, actually savage was putting it too mildly. Whatever that used to be human in them was long gone and now they were animals that hunted, killed, and preformed the most despicable of atrocities to anyone they had captured. Cannibalising, raping, and torturing anyone unfortunate to come across them the Reavers had no respect for their victims, even in death as once the victims were deceased they strapped the dead to the hulls of their ships or sewed the skin of their victims into their clothing.

They were known for launching small raids onto outer colonies but avoided the large colonies likely patrolled by the Alliance. Despite the Alliance claiming them to be myths and stories they collected information on every planet under their control for review.

 **System Log-In**

 **Password Required: #######**

 **Password Accepted**

 **All research has been composed and submitted for research on the species labelled Human.** **Servitor races have used disease epidemics and internal conflicts in ancient past to gather specimens for study. Population on any colonized planet is numerous but mostly peaceful. Poor candidates for servitor status: High creativity levels and self-preservation instinct make them inclined to fight rather than submit when faced by overwhelming foe.**

 **See 'Borg' for more information.**

 **Can be aggressive when threatened. Recommend that all activities in system be covert until invasion is launched.**

 **Attempts to control species for hopes of conversion into servitor status has yielded numerous results but none of them promising. The Human pirates labelled 'Reavers' have shown to be too aggressive to be culled and lifespans too short to be trained or altered. Only small amount of humans capable of submission when self-preservation deems resistance to be futile and have carried out all possible attempts to remove possibilities of unknown chaotic traits Humans possess.**

 **All known attempts have failed.**

 **The servitor Humans now seek to induce and enhance telepathy in younger Humans to produce a better way to control the population surrounding the outer colonies. A futile approach considered barbaric to many of us for the lack of care for the young. Though we became ruthless to survive we did not experiment on our offspring to such an extent.**

 **Scan of the fallen group known as the Independents showed that while capable of fighting back with creative thinking their ability to fight back was of little to no progress in resisting Alliance control. Independents showed more compassion to themselves and anger upon learning the Alliance bombed the planet codenamed 'Shadow' to invoke fear. Such a response is understandable and shows the Alliance to be ruthless in its approach. Though we seek for our servitors to be ruthless the Alliance's approach has been less than pleasing to us.**

 **It was wise to avoid arming either side with advanced weapons and technology outside of Level 1 space faring technology.**

 **Project considered for termination.**

* * *

A girl, strapped to a chair with machines and IVs attached to her arms and head let out a scream as she saw images…

 _A group of humans, all of them Alliance Officials standing at a circular table._

 _A planet with a population of people, all of them dead and simply lying down as if they were going to sleep._

 _A planet bombed by ships in orbit until it was engulfed in flames._

 _And finally a creature, humanoid looking but its skin made of pulsing darkness instead of flesh, three pairs of eyes glowing with intelligence and hate, and a shining sphere where its heart would be. "You live because we allow it and you will end if we demand it. Show us you are useful and perhaps you will be allowed to journey into the universe outside of this shell that is now your home. None shall find you because to the universe you do not exist."_

"Demons…." The girl whispered. "They call out from the night…Whispering for blood…Our blood."

A week later River Tam was rescued by her brother and escaped into a smuggler ship that set out into the outer regions.

The girl could not tell them that all they knew, all they believed in, was a mere fabrication created by the Master of the Black that trapped them in a giant ball, cut off from the universe and left to live a fantasy life from which there was no escape.

She never said anything as the crew of the _Serenity_ dodged Alliance attempts to recapture her.

She never said anything when Simon decided to take her off _Serenity_ and find a new place to hide.

She never said anything when they discovered Miranda.

And she never said anything as the message of Miranda's tragedy was broadcasted across the fictional universe and causing Alliance worlds to begin questioning parliament.

Even if the Alliance fell it would not matter for in the end the Demons controlled them all.


End file.
